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"randalel" <randalel@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:EF56E2EA-9150-4B07-9F97-7E5E6F2D5A29@microsoft.com...
> my brother's company gave him an old hewlett-packard pc atleast ten yrs
> old
> what can he do with it,besides trashing it?

Run ten year old software on it. I'm not being sarcastic - for instance, MS
Office 97 is regarded by many as something of a classic - focused and
functional with none of the later feature bloat. Paint Shop Pro was on the
go back then, and pretty good. An old copy of Netscape will do for your Web
browsing.

I'm sure others will suggest other software from ten years ago that will
work fine.

About the OS: if you can, get hold of a copy of Windows 98 SE and do a
complete reformat and reinstall. Right now that hard disk is going to be
seriously "dirty".

"randalel" <randalel@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:EF56E2EA-9150-4B07-9F97-7E5E6F2D5A29@microsoft.com...
> my brother's company gave him an old hewlett-packard pc atleast ten yrs
> old
> what can he do with it,besides trashing it?

Make a digital picture frame out of it, you could put it in a decent
frame and have a picture slide show running... 'Repair4Laptop: How to
Make a Digital Picture Frame - DPF from an Old Laptop or Notebook'
(http://repair4laptop.org/notebook_picture_frame.html)

"randalel" <randalel@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:EF56E2EA-9150-4B07-9F97-7E5E6F2D5A29@microsoft.com...
| my brother's company gave him an old hewlett-packard pc atleast ten yrs old
| what can he do with it,besides trashing it?

My computer is only 8 years old and I'm still posting here with it. Just got
another year of AV, I'd better send in for that rebate soon.

Got another computer here that's 10 years old, and I'm trying to find a larger
HDD for it (and it has no RAM left after booting up, just like Vista, lol). I
only intend to run one program on it for some external hardware that I've had
for 10 years. The older one can also play music CD's well, unlike this one I'm
on. Neither one is worth a damn for playing videos though.

Donate your old computer to Goodwill, or recycle it somehow (Goodwill may not
want it!).

On Tue, 6 Mar 2007 20:42:10 -0800, randalel
<randalel@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>my brother's company gave him an old hewlett-packard pc atleast ten yrs old
>what can he do with it,besides trashing it?
As others have pointed out. "Clean Install" with all the patches there
were.

Use it as a:
"print server" ,
Simple file server (get a new drive if you do).

Best one I can think of if you have XPpro on your main box (or
office): Install Windows desktop connection CLIENT and use it as a
remote terminal. Even a W95b machine with a decent graphics (800x600>)
card works great for this. My wife was bed ridden after a hip
operation. A old notebook allowed access to the bulky desktop in her
hobby room from bed. (this notebook would choke on a MP3 playback it
was so under powered. 386-dx75 20M)

you pay shipping, and i've got old drives you can have for the taking.

"Cymbal Man Freq." <Don't Bother@ForgedPostsAnonymous.unorg> wrote in
message news:eaC1k0LYHHA.4368@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> "randalel" <randalel@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:EF56E2EA-9150-4B07-9F97-7E5E6F2D5A29@microsoft.com...
> | my brother's company gave him an old hewlett-packard pc atleast ten yrs
> old
> | what can he do with it,besides trashing it?
>
> My computer is only 8 years old and I'm still posting here with it. Just
> got
> another year of AV, I'd better send in for that rebate soon.
>
> Got another computer here that's 10 years old, and I'm trying to find a
> larger
> HDD for it (and it has no RAM left after booting up, just like Vista,
> lol). I
> only intend to run one program on it for some external hardware that I've
> had
> for 10 years. The older one can also play music CD's well, unlike this one
> I'm
> on. Neither one is worth a damn for playing videos though.
>
> Donate your old computer to Goodwill, or recycle it somehow (Goodwill may
> not
> want it!).
>
>